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Thursday, 29 April 2010

Goodbye grandpa

My dad rang me at 7:30 this morning to say that my grandad had died in the night. This wasn't an unexpected piece of news as he was very frail and had reached the age of 94 which even these days is above average. It was still a very sad thing to be told and I had to break the news to my children. Luckily at 6 & 3 its mostly gone over their heads but I'm sure it will hit them eventually. I've gone through today in a bit of a strange haze with occasional tears but having to carry on as normal for the children.

In honour of his 94 years on this planet I thought I would explore some of the things that made him special...

grandpa 2nd from left

The son of Welsh headmaster and a Lancastrian mother he was born in Lancashire during the First World War. The middle son of a family of 5 he grew up in a time of change and took part in the first ever Scout Jamboree.

uniform has changed a bit!

On leaving school he joined the local bank, in the days when banking was a respected profession! I find it hard to imagine him as a young man shining up the gas lamps in the street to light his cigarette...

He fell in love with a young hairdresser called Margaret:

and they married in 1939 just after the outbreak of World War 2.

Due to a combination of medical history and banking background Walter served in the Pay Corps in the UK. At one point he took a demotion so he could be posted near his expanding family after the birth of the first of 3 sons.

After the war he worked very hard to get the necessary qualifications to eventually become manager of a bank. His sons grew up and left home and he took early retirement to his weekend cottage in Dumfries & Galloway. This would be a place of happy memories for his grandchildren to come and visit.

Most of his siblings had emigrated to South Africa or Rhodesia and, once he retired, many trips were made to visit them and the nieces and nephews who lived out there.

In latter years he moved to a slightly less remote village in Cumbria and then to Penrith before ending his days in Appleby-in-Westmorland.

I will always remember him for his enjoyment of the Telegraph crossword - he could do it without writing in the answers so my other granny could share the paper! He loved writing letters to us all and was enthusiastic about the research I was conducting for the family tree. Lots of family members had their only correspondence through him so I hope we can keep in touch.

I am glad my children got to meet him and hope they can remember him later.

So I hope this post was coherent as I've raised a glass or 2 of wine to his memory.